Its been a while since we had much on this subject.
While this is just a lab report, its nice to know because the unused roof acreage in the US is so vast that if we could really get 60% efficiency in cells, it would change the whole ball game
Quantum Dot Materials Can Reduce Heat, Boost Electrical Output
Monday, May 23, 2005
Golden, Colo. — Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have shown that nanotechnology may greatly increase the amount of electricity produced by solar cells.
...an NREL team found that tiny "nanocrystals," also known as "quantum dots," produce as many as three electrons from one high energy photon of sunlight. When today's photovoltaic solar cells absorb a photon of sunlight, the energy gets converted to at most one electron, and the rest is lost as heat...."
..solar cells based on quantum dots theoretically could convert more than 65 percent of the sun's energy into electricity...The best cells today convert about 33 percent of the sun's energy into electricity...
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